DON'T BOGART THAT LAW

Good for Anne McLellan. As the Citizen's Stephen Bindman reports in today's
paper, Canada's Justice Minister says Canadians should begin a debate on
whether to make marijuana available for medicinal purposes and, were this
eventually permitted, should not try to regulate the interaction between
doctors and their patients.

The Citizen favours decriminalization of marijuana, but it also favours a
legal system that operates in a straightforward, transparent manner. As the
minister points out, although there may be an emerging consensus on letting
doctors prescribe marijuana to chronically ill patients to ease pain, there
is not yet a consensus on legalization, plain and simple.

Permitting medicinal use may prove to be a way station on the road to full
decriminalization. Politicians may eventually be tempted to make it the
final destination, the loophole by means of which, de facto, marijuana
becomes widely available.

That would be unfortunate. The law of the land should recognize the facts
of the land. If Canadians tolerate widespread marijuana use, its use should
be legal.